Manatee Road, FL

Manatee Road is a Levy County census-designated place in the Gainesville metro, on the county's northwestern side with Chiefland at its eastern edge. The 2020 census counted 2,484 residents. State Road 320, also called Manatee Springs Road, runs through the southern part of the community, east toward Chiefland and west toward Manatee Springs State Park. That road gives the place its everyday shape: a small inland settlement tied to a spring, a river, and the nearest commercial center. Manatee Springs brings the Suwannee River basin into the local picture, with a first-magnitude spring, river access, paddling, swimming, camping, and a long-standing park tradition.

Chiefland supplies the nearby storefronts and services, while Manatee Road remains an unincorporated community spread along the roads between farms, woods, and spring country. The place name, the road name, and the state park all come back to the same freshwater geography. Manatee Road's local scoop is a rural Levy County crossroads where the spring is both the landmark and the reason the road names line up.